{"id":1307,"date":"2012-05-09T12:17:13","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T03:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/?p=1307"},"modified":"2025-04-27T18:03:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T09:03:18","slug":"hikone-a-journey-in-time-manga-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/hikone-a-journey-in-time-manga-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Hikone: A Journey in Time (manga review)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"HikoneManga1\"
Hikone: A Journey in Time (cover)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Updated: Nov. 7, 2014<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hikone Board of Education has published a manga comic booklet in English titled, Hikone: A Journey in Time.<\/em> Targeting tourists, the black-and-white manga explains about Hikone’s feudal history and cultural sights through the eyes of John, a fictitious 20-year-old lad from Michigan (Shiga’s sister state) visiting Hikone<\/a> while staying with a Japanese family. The A5-size, 70-page booklet is available for 500 yen at the Hikone Castle Museum<\/a> next to the ticket booth where you enter Hikone Castle<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The manga story starts off with John visiting Hikone Castle with his host family, the Tachibanas who have a 12-year-old daughter named Hana. A lightning bolt during a rainstorm transports John and Hana back in time to the year 1600 during the Battle of Sekigahara<\/a> (in Gifu). A mysterious and beckoning cat named Toku serves as their time-warp tour guide as they witness the Eastern Forces’ Tokugawa Ieyasu defeat the Western Forces’ (and Shiga native) Ishida Mitsunari<\/a>. Then they see Ieyasu’s major ally Ii Naomasa<\/a> consequently awarded the domain of Hikone and his successors building Hikone Castle and the town. Ii Naosuke is also introduced as the Tairo (Chief Minister) of the Tokugawa government in 1858 who made the decision to open up Japan to the Western powers led by Commodore Perry<\/a> (very good manga likeness).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naosuke is later assassinated by radical samurai from Mito in 1860 while on his snowy way to Edo Castle’s Sakurada-mon Gate<\/a>. Although the manga shows him being shot and stabbed in his palanquin, it does not show (nor mention) that he was also dragged out of his palanquin and beheaded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toku the talking cat then takes John and Hana to see Hikone’s cultural products like kotoyaki<\/em> pottery and Takamiya jofu<\/em> textiles and Korean emissary processions. John and Hana are later zapped back to the present day as the cat disappears. The manga continues with the legendary story of the maneki-neko<\/em> or beckoning cat<\/a> saving Ii Naotaka (3rd lord of Hikone) from a lightning bolt at Gotokuji temple<\/a> in Tokyo. John also visits a butsudan<\/em> Buddhist altar factory where Hana’s dad works. I wish they also mentioned that many of the butsudan parts are crafted elsewhere (such as in neighboring Maibara<\/a>) and then assembled in Hikone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The end of the book has short English articles about the Korean Road (along which the Korean emissary traveled in Hikone on the way to Edo), Hikone Castle being on the World Heritage Site Tentative List, Hiko-nyan<\/a> (Hikone’s official mascot), and a list and map of cultural properties in Hikone. It doesn’t elaborate on Hikone Castle’s prospects of actually becoming a World Heritage Site which I think is a long shot. It has languished on the Tentative List<\/a> for 20 years since Japan first nominated it in 1992. The manga is apparently part of a strategy to gain support for Hikone Castle’s designation as a World Heritage Site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually, I think they should first push Lake Biwa<\/a>‘s designation as a national park (it’s a quasi-national park). It’s one of the world’s oldest lakes with unique native species and has a long satoyama<\/em> history of people living and interacting with the lake. And besides Hikone Castle, there are numerous nationally historic, cultural, and scenic sites around the lake such Mt. Shizugatake, Anegawa River, Mt. Ibuki, Nagahama Castle, Lake Yogo, Azuchi Castle, and Harie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The manga provides whirlwind\/superficial coverage of Hikone’s history, so some important details are missing. But it does give the newcomer a good, if not amusing, idea of what Hikone is about. It’s good enough for me to buy a copy to give to friends visiting Shiga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The booklet is an excellent attempt by a local Board of Education to reach out to foreign tourists, a very rare project indeed. All local Boards of Education should follow suit. After all, they are the ones who have the expertise in local history and culture. The tourist bureaus are not terribly interested in explaining about local culture and history (because they are not academics nor researchers) and don’t care so much about serving a minority (foreign) segment of visitors. When they do produce something in English, it’s usually pretty shoddy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hikone Board of Education contracted Kyoto Seika University to produce the booklet. The manga was drawn by a graduate of the university, Kojima Eiyu (\u5c0f\u5cf6\u745b\u7531). He did a fine job. The English translation was done by a manga researcher at Kyoto Seika University International, Jessica Bauwens-Sugimoto, and the editing was supervised by Peter J. Morris, Executive Director of International Programs at the University of Shiga Prefecture<\/a> (not to be confused with Shiga University<\/a>, a national university).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employing native English speakers was wise (compared to using machine translation or a Japanese translator), but the booklet still has too many typos and grammatical issues. Apparently, the translator and editor weren’t given a chance to proofread their work. Many Japanese in printing\/publishing don’t understand that translators\/writers need time to proofread their work. I bet it was a rush job and the translator had only the Japanese text to translate, without the benefit of seeing the manga cells. It’s like translating a photo caption without seeing the photo. It’s very difficult. The translator\/editor should also be given adequate leeway to modify the English text\/dialog to suit the foreign readership and convey the meaning accurately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The booklet includes a separate insert providing a Japanese translation of the English dialog on each page. (It seems to be the Japanese source text that was translated into English.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some 3,000 copies have been printed for the first printing. According to the Shiga Hikone Shimbun<\/a>, the production cost was 2.6 million yen (867 yen per copy) which means they are taking a substantial loss by selling it for so cheap at 500 yen. The BOE published it to mark the 75th anniversary of Hikone. For more information, call the Hikone Board of Education at 0749-26-5833.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If they will revise this manga for another printing, here are my suggestions\/corrections (excluding typos and grammatical errors) for improvement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n